Green thumbs blossom at Windermere Elementary

The children hustle to the courtyard as soon as they arrive at school on Friday mornings, eager to hang out with Jen Pilgrim and see what’s taking shape in the campus’ various gardens.

Pilgrim, who has a kindergartner, Lily, and a first-grader, Max, at Windermere Elementary School, organizes the school’s Learning Garden Club, which takes care of fruiting trees, raised vegetable garden beds, a pineapple patch, an herb garden and two pollinator gardens. About 70 families participate in the free before-school club.

“With these gardens, we are able to provide hands-on, outdoor learning activities and lessons where children can get their hands dirty and literally see the fruits of their labor,” Pilgrim said.

On any given Friday, close to 30 students join Pilgrim for a lesson on gardening or to hear from a guest speaker, and then they head out to the garden for inspection and maybe some weeding or gathering.

“Taking care of a garden this size is hard work, and the kids have shown they are up for the task,” Pilgrim said.

“Before we could plant, we had five yards of soil delivered to the school — that's a few thousand pounds,” Pilgrim said. “The kids all grabbed a shovel and loaded up wheelbarrows to move all of that soil to our garden beds. The next week, we worked with an amazing new Learning Garden sponsor, Amber Harmon of SunGold Gardens, who not only donated her time to teach the kids about the importance of amending our soil with organic fertilizers, but also donated dozens of organic plants to give us a jump start on our fall harvest.

“After the lesson, the kids amended the soil and planted the donated veggies,” she said. “They later planted organic seeds generously donated by Winter Garden Lowe's.”

Each Wednesday morning, a group of parents shows up to prepare the garden and lessons and activities for the children’s Friday club.

The garden isn’t all work, though.

“A grandparent volunteer, Ann ‘Gaga’ Barron, taught the kids some really cool facts about worms and how important their presence is in our soil,” Pilgrim said. “We even got to have worm experiments like a worm race before adding them to the garden beds. We've also had a nature scavenger hunt.”

At the beginning of the school year, club members vote on what they want to plant in the garden. They have planted carrots, radishes, peas, fingerling and Yukon gold potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, various herbs, cucumbers, cabbage, lettuces, broccoli, and more. They also just planted zinnia flowers from seeds, and they love taking flowers to their teachers, Pilgrim said.

A few weeks ago, the young gardeners harvested the lettuces, radishes, cucumbers and tomatoes they've grown and made their own organic garden salads.

This week the students are using the herbs they’ve grown to make holiday gifts for their teachers.

“As the chairperson, I get to be the ambassador for this amazing space at our school,” Pilgrim said. “I get to experience the happiness and excitement that this program brings to the kids.”

She’s grateful for the support of the WES administration, PTO and volunteers, especially from a group of fifth-grade moms who have been loyal garden volunteers for years — Wendy Quintero, Elizabeth McLaughlin and Lisa Phillips — along with Phillips’ daughter, Annabelle. Pilgrim also is thankful for partnerships with the Winter Garden Lowe’s, which donated organic seed packets, starter soil, and weed prevention fabric and pins; Harmon, who created garden maps, assisted in planting day, hosted a lesson and donated dozens of organic vegetables; and Bloom & Grow Garden Society for its contributions of plants, lessons and pollinator garden maintenance.

Her passion for gardening and teaching students about sustainability will reach other schools in OCPS now that she serves as coordinator for the Environmental Sustainability Department.